Remunerate, recognise and retain: Independent schools step up

Your union has recently been conducting a campaign in independent schools for recognition of increased workloads and the rising cost of living.

Independent schools are currently approaching the end of the third year of their fouryear MEA (expiry January 2025), and the pay rises agreed for the MEA in late 2021 (3.28%, 2.28% & 2.53% next year) were considered reasonable at the time, but have since proved to be inadequate in the light of the spike in inflation over the last year or so.

IEU Council endorsed a plan to lobby (and if need be, pressure) AIS schools into giving some additional cost-of-living payments, over and above those in the MEA. A NewsExtra went out in May calling for a 1% one-off payment of salary (OOPS), or other arrangement as the Chapter might feel is appropriate.

Pleasingly, some schools stepped up and have done the right thing by their staff by making some moves to rectify the shortcomings of the 2021 MEA. These include the 17 schools of the Anglican Schools Corporation, who paid a 1% payment to all staff earlier in the year. Since then, several other schools have followed suit, including:

Al Faisal College (three campuses) – $1000 payment to all staff (teachers and SAO)

Al Zahra – 1% additional salary

Central Coast Grammar School – 2 x OOPS payment, 1% in February, 0.5% in June

• Elouera Special School – Increases in salary in 2023 and 2024, amounting to a total of 3.5% in each year (roughly 2.2% over MEA in total)

Emanuel School – OOPS payment of 1.5% in July

Kincoppal – introduced over-MEA of 1% for the first time in 2022

Knox Grammar (all campuses) – Increased salaries by 3% in 2023, 0.72% above MEA

Malek Fahd (3 campuses) – 1% OOPS in June

Orana Steiner School – paid 3.98% in 2023, about 1.7% above MEA

Radford College – 1% salary increase for teachers over MEA paid in February

Stella Maris, Manly – 1% additional into salary, and

William Clarke College – 1% salary increase in both June and October 2023.

The IEU commends these schools for recognising the work and commitment of their staff and the cost-of-living concerns they have raised.

Unfortunately, most independent schools continue to sit on their hands and hide behind the MEA settlement. Members in independent schools should contact their Organiser to discuss how best to put pressure on your school to not only step up but keep up with schools in other sectors.

Agreeing to make payments like these would not only benefit staff, but also the schools themselves, given the well-documented staffing shortages that are being reported across all schools. Business as usual will no longer cut it, and staff are making their voices heard by going elsewhere.

The union is calling upon schools to ‘remunerate, recognise and retain’.

Kendall Warren and Lubna Haddad Organisers

Support staff: Are you correctly reclassified and receiving the correct pay rate?

In late May, the IEU reached agreement with all NSW and ACT dioceses (except Broken Bay, which has a separate agreement) on the terms of an interim settlement agreement, which secured benefits for our support staff members, while discussions continue with dioceses about teachers’ workloads.

Many support staff members in Catholic diocesan schools have now received notice from their employer of the pay increases and any reclassifications as a result of the interim settlement. The pay rises and new classifications for support staff employed in the School Administrative Services Stream and the Classroom and Learning Support Services Stream were the result of a long campaign to establish pay parity with school administrative and support staff working in comparable roles in

NSW public schools. They apply to staff in these streams who are currently classified at Levels 4, 5 and 6.

The new rates are backdated to the first full pay period on or after 1 January 2023.

However, given the complex nature of the changes, some members are still waiting to receive their new pay rates and back pay. And others have been given the wrong classifications.

Dioceses (except Broken Bay) will now also be paying an additional 4% from July 2023.

Check this QR code to find your correct pay rate

The enterprise agreement (EA) for a community-based preschool run by a local church reached its nominal expiry date and members contacted the IEU to request that we write to their employer seeking to commence negotiations for a new EA

The IEU wrote to the president of the management committee that month, who indicated they were meeting with their representative due to a lack of expertise with EAs

Three months later bargaining commenced, and the IEU gave the management committee our Log of Claims. Agreement on conditions was reached and although the initial pay offer was rejected by members, employees later accepted an improved pay offer from the employer.

The management committee indicated their representative would draft the agreement. The IEU wrote to the committee requesting a copy of the draft agreement on several occasions. However, no draft agreement was forthcoming.

The IEU then sought to schedule further bargaining meetings. Unfortunately, the committee indicated that no meetings would be scheduled. The IEU wrote to them citing their failure to meet good faith bargaining provisions by refusing to attend meetings, and they promptly withdrew from the bargaining process.

The IEU continued to write to the committee seeking to recommence bargaining but no progress was made as they failed to respond to the IEU’s letters.

Our members continued to indicate their dissatisfaction with the lack of progress on behalf of their employer. The IEU had no choice but to lodge a bargaining dispute with the Fair Work Commission (FWC). This resulted in a bargaining meeting between the union, the employer’s legal representative and the committee president within two weeks of the FWC case conference.

Subsequently, the committee’s representative agreed to annual increases of 4% to pay and allowances, threeyear trained teachers at the preschool to be paid on the higher four-year trained pay scale, 10 hours of paid leave for teachers to attend NESA accredited training, employer to pay for mandatory and approved training and employees to access pro-rata long service leave after 7.5 years.

Members unanimously accepted the offer and most employees voted in favour of the new enterprise agreement, which is awaiting approval from the FWC. This is a big win for members in this preschool.

The IEU was contacted by a member employed in a long day care centre operated by a Local Health District (LHD) under the umbrella of the Ministry of Health to ask about whether lunch breaks should be paid. The early childhood teachers at the centre were rostered on 8.5 hour shifts with an unpaid lunch break and a paid 20-minute tea break.

IEU Organiser Lisa James advised that the Teachers’ (NSW health Early Childhood Service Centres) Salaries and Miscellaneous Conditions Award 2022 specifies that teachers receive a paid midday crib break. The IEU then wrote to Human Resources in the relevant LHD and advised them that IEU members had no agreement in writing for unpaid lunch breaks for teachers at their workplace. The union stated that as this is the case, teachers are entitled to paid lunch breaks as per clause 4.1 of the award, which states:

“Not more than 30 minutes nor less than 20 minutes shall be allowed to teachers each day for a midday paid crib break. Such crib break shall be counted as time worked.

“Provided however that a teacher may, by agreement with the employer, leave the premises or elect not to be on call during the crib break. Where a reasonable request has been made by the teacher, the employer shall give favourable consideration to any such request. During this time, the teacher cannot be counted as part of the child/ staff ratios under the Education and Care Services National Regulations. Such time away from the premises or not on call shall not count as time worked nor shall any payment be made for such time.

“However if the teacher is called back to perform any duties within the centre of the break and it is interrupted for any reason, the teacher shall be paid at time and a half for a minimum of 15 minutes and thereafter to the nearest quarter hour until an uninterrupted break or the balance of the break is taken.

“Notation: It is agreed between the parties that any agreement between the teacher and the employer concerning an unpaid crib break must be genuine. For example, a teacher cannot be required by the employer to agree to an unpaid crib break as a condition of employment. Any agreement should be recorded in writing and kept with pay records.”

As a result, members are in the process of receiving a significant amount of backpay for their unpaid lunch breaks. The IEU has written to other LHD centres to ascertain whether teachers are paid for their lunch breaks.

Lisa James Organiser